Award-winning loser

Former Australian prime minister John Howard has given his first public speech since his stunning defeat at the polls last November.

Former prime minister John Howard has hit out at several of the Rudd Government’s policies while giving a major speech in the United States.

Mr Howard has given an address at a gala dinner for the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, where he received the Irving Kristol Award.

He has told the audience that scrapping the WorkChoices laws is the first time in 25 years that a major economic reform has been reversed. ...

And he has described his disappointment at the moves to bring Australian troops home from Iraq.

Undoubtedly Mr Howard would’ve had the rapt AEI crowd nodding synchronously, but let’s just consider the two examples evinced here.

Both are attempts to implement long-standing policy positions of the Australian Labor Party, which formed the basis of firm commitments the ALP took to the polls.

Ahah... Keeping election commitments!!

I think we can now see Mr Howard’s problem with the new Rudd Government’s actions.

On reflection, I now see that Tim Dunlop’s approach to Mr Howard’s speech was the correct one.